Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows #2 continues the story of clone trooper CT-5539 on his journey to find Darth Vader and become one of his soldiers, while being fueled by hatred for the Jedi. It opens up with the clone trooper arriving during a celebration for the Empire bringing peace and security to the galaxy. Well it was actually for the capture of a Jedi and the rest was just propaganda from the Empire that the crowd was eating up. Seeing the captured Jedi reminds this trooper of how he felt abandoned on that planet and was ready to just give up and die. But something stirred him to not only survive but to give himself a name as well. It’s so rare that he only knew of one other trooper that ever gave himself a name and he reflects on what became of that trooper and how he allegedly went mad. But Clone trooper CT-5539, or rather Hock now, has Darth Vader as his inspiration and has finally rejoined with the Empire and can witness Darth Vader up close and personal. Will this long and arduous journey to get back to the Empire be worth it or has this clone trooper been deluded this entire time?

I felt the first issue in this series was mildly interesting, although I was disappointed that Darth Vader wasn’t in the issue in any meaningful way. The viewpoint of a clone trooper struggling to survive and make sense out of his existence after being left behind but not dead was very intriguing. However since it was the main story it wasn’t nearly as engrossing as it would have been if it was just a side story, or at the very least some eventful things occurred instead of just being a narration. Unfortunately that continues with this issue and it made me realize something, which was also confirmed with the story of the other clone trooper who gave himself a name and was referred to as the Mandalorian Anomaly. Hock really isn’t shown to be different from the other clone troopers in any meaningful way. He talks about deciding his own destiny, even though I felt that was already established in the first issue, but the Mandalorian Anomaly was A LOT more interesting and not only changed himself physically but had an entirely different perspective about his existence in just a few pages. Hock wants to kill Jedi, wants to fight for the Empire, and aside from him consistently stating that he’s basically the biggest Darth Vader fan, those are the same actions all the other clone troopers perform without the narration. They hunt and kill Jedi and other enemies of the Empire. And we don’t get to witness the actions that even made him stand out to Darth Vader since it’s all narration. And I’m not trusting the payoff yet because I haven’t seen anything that would give this series a context even in terms of what this trooper’s admiration of Darth Vader could result in. This issue feels like it’s a setup for more events to occur but I’m thinking that might just be my hope that there will be more that takes place in future issues.

SUMMARY

Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows #2 is more of the same narration from Hock, the clone trooper inspired by his view of Darth Vader, and feels very uneventful. Since everything that occurs comes off as a summary there is no character defining moment that convinced me Hock was truly a unique clone trooper, and in fact, the mention of another clone trooper only highlighted my belief about Hock. And I assume anyone who would be interested in this series already knows how awesome Darth Vader could be as a villain and this issue doesn’t seem to take that into account. Hock gets to witness and be inspired by Darth Vader’s actions, while we only get to read Hock’s ramblings about those actions. So I could only recommend this to those who are absolutely certain they would love to hear a clone trooper talk about his admiration for Darth Vader…again.

Release Date: 1/15/14

Writer: Tim Siedell

Artist: Gabriel Guzman